


The Stray

by The Monster Lady (VisceraNight)



Category: Hellsing
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, POV Second Person, Reader Trapped In Cat Form, Reader-Insert, Romance, implied/referenced animal cruelty, vampire!reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 17:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14313642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisceraNight/pseuds/The%20Monster%20Lady
Summary: Reader is a vampire fledgling who was abandoned by her master and has been surviving by eating stray cats.Pip saves her from being tormented by a group of children and brings her home with him, not realizing that she is anything other than a normal cat... although Alucard quickly sets him straight.





	The Stray

~ The Stray ~

You hiss and swat at the chubby little hands which grab for you. There are three human children trying to drag you out from under the cardboard boxes piled between the dumpster and the back wall of the alley. Which wouldn't be that much of a problem for you _if you were really a cat_. Unfortunately, you are a vampire. And, well... you are what you eat. And all you've had to eat lately are the stray cats that used to inhabit this alley. Your vampiric sire abandoned you without making a fully-realized vampire out of you. You have no coffin to rest in. You're so weak at this point that sunlight alone is enough to kill you.

You don't know if the kids intend to be cruel or just want play with the cute little kitty - but either way, you can't let them drag you out of your shelter into the sunlight. You let out a loud yowl and strike at the grasping hands with your claws out this time.

One of the children lets out a pained shriek and jumps back. The other two start grabbing boxes and flinging them out of the way. As beams of sunlight begin to invade your sanctuary, you wriggle backwards into the shadows. After a moment, the child you scratched joins in as well, and the three of them make short work of the pile. You continue to scream and slash at them as the last of your shelter is ripped away.

A deep adult voice shouts, "HEY!" and the kids scatter.

You shrink back against the dumpster, pressing your tiny body tight to the hot metal, trying to keep as much of yourself in its meager shadow as you can. The sunlight scalds your exposed right side and you let out a pathetic mew of pain.

Then, suddenly, a shadow falls over you, shielding you from the sun.

"Damn brats, what the hell were they thinking, torturing a cat?" says the same voice that scared your tormentors away. You were so focused on your imminent demise that you didn't notice his footsteps as he approached.

You cautiously crack your eyes open and peek up at your savior. Your first thought is that he looks like some odd cross between a pirate and a cowboy. If you had a human form, you'd probably laugh. Since you're a cat, it comes out in the form of a hiss.

"Hey, hey... easy, little buddy," the guy says. "I'm not going to hurt you. Here kitty, kitty."

Your choices here are limited to the point of nonexistence. If you let him leave, you'll be toast - literally. If you go to him... you don't know. You'll get to live longer, you guess, but you'll just be weak and stuck in this form forever. How long until he begins to suspect you're not a normal cat? Especially since you can't stand sunlight and you won't be able to eat kibble or use the litter box.

Just thinking about it, you unintentionally let out a distressed meow.

He slowly reaches out toward you. You are too embarrassed to sniff him like a natural cat would, but after a moment he gently rubs between your ears. You let out a small mew and he moves his hand away.

You remain still and after a moment he reaches out again. You fight not to make any noise that he might mistake for discontent as he scoops you up into his arms. Abruptly, he stands up and you yowl as sunlight streams across your exposed body parts.

"It's okay, it's okay," he says, trying to soothe you. But he clearly doesn't understand what the problem is, and you don't know how to communicate in a way he'll understand.

You push your head under the folds of his scarf and hope against hope that he gets the message.

"Oh, are you cold?" he says, and tucks your small body into the front of his jacket.

Ah, well, wrong message but it got the result you wanted anyway.

"I'm Pip, by the way," he introduces himself to you, for some reason. "Hmm, you're going to need a name, too. How about Lucky?"

You give a small mew of approval, kind of wishing you had figured out how to purr so you could do that instead, but you haven't learned the secret of making that particular noise yet.

At least he didn't try to call you _Sunshine_.

* * *

Once you're inside Pip's house (you guess it's his house; you didn't see the outside), you poke your head out of his jacket to look around.

Pip has barely walked five steps into the house when _a vampire phases through the wall_ , takes one look at you, and says, "Put that back where you found it right now."

You squirm helplessly, but don't have the strength to wriggle free of Pip's arms. You would run right back out into the sunlight right now rather than have this vampire - and you can sense he's a strong one - reveal what you really are to your savior.

"What are you, my mother?" Pip scoffs.

Seeming entirely offended, the vampire snarls, "How _dare_ you bring that here, around my fledgling."

You give up you efforts to escape, already exhausted by even that much movement, and Pip cradles you protectively against his chest.

"What, Seras doesn't like cats?" he asks, nonplussed.

"Allow me to enlighten you..." the vampire drawls. "You did not bring home a stray cat. You brought home a stray _vampire_."

You give a pathetic mew.

"I'm keeping her!" Pip insists. "I'll take care of her."

You have no idea if he's accepted that easily that you're a actually a vampire or if he assumes the vampire is lying and thinks that you're still just a cat.

"You'll have to get Integra's permission if you want to keep her here," the vampire says.

That name seems familiar to you for some reason.

"Oh, sure, I'll talk to the boss about it," Pip agrees readily. Then, slightly less sure of himself, he asks, "You think she'll say no?"

"Your little pet is a fledgling that has been cast out by her sire, and is already on death's doorstep. A wooden stake or even a sunbeam could kill her."

Your protector's only reaction to this news is to hold you more gently.

Without further conversation, Pip takes off through the maze of corridors in the mansion. You already feel lost, but he seems to know exactly where he's going. You keep expecting the vampire to leave but he follows along until three of you reach your destination.

Pip reaches out to knock on the door, but the vampire brushes past him and just opens it and walks right in.

An unfamiliar voice exclaims from inside the room: "Alucard, what-" 

 _Oh, shit_. That is a name you definitely recognize, and you realize why 'Integra' sounded familiar earlier, too. Because she's the leader of the Hellsing Organization. Which exterminates vampires. _Shit, shit, shit_. No wonder Alucard was upset about you being here. You're the kind of 'trash' he normally cleans up, as Hellsing's pet vampire.

Without preamble, Alucard announces, "Pip brought home a stray vampire and wants to keep her."

"He what?" the voice asks disbelievingly.

"I didn't _know_ she was a vampire when I picked her up," Pip says defensively as he enters the boss's office.

The person behind the desk - Integra Hellsing, you assume - stares at you with an intense frown.

" _That's_ a vampire?" she asks, her voice dripping with disdain.

You fight the instinct to hiss at her, which certainly wouldn't do you any favors in getting her to agree you can stay here, although it _would_ make you feel better.

"Yes, as malnourished - and likely trapped in that form - as she may be, I assure you that is most definitely a vampire," Alucard replies. "A fledgling who was abandoned by her master, drank stray cats to survive, and is currently on the knife's edge of meeting her second death."

"She was abandoned by her vampire master?" Integra inquires, with a thoughtful expression that you don't trust to mean anything good. "You're certain about that?"

"Yes," Alucard confirms.

You don't know what you're expecting, but what Integra says next is definitely not it.

"Is there some way you could vampire-adopt her?"

Alucard is silent for long moment before lifting one arm in a kind of half-shrug and offering, "A blood exchange, probably?"

"Are you willing?" she asks.

It takes a moment before you realize the question is directed at you, not Alucard.

You nod.

Becoming a servant of Alucard - and, by extension, Hellsing - is a better future than anything you could have hoped for at this point.

It seems she is about to declare the matter settled when Alucard says, "Although, it is possible she could recover on her own, if she's fed enough blood from living humans. She doesn't need to drain them dry, of course, but the bagged stuff wouldn't be enough for her at this point, since she's deteriorated so far."

Although he hasn't flat out said it, you can tell he's uncomfortable with the idea of binding you to him. And, to be perfectly honest, you're not too fond of the idea of being claimed as his fledgling, either, after already having that bond abused and broken by your former master.

"By the way, Pip has already promised to take care of her, even after learning she was a vampire. I think that counts as volunteering to be her blood donor," Alucard added, flashing a shark grin at your savior.

* * *

Pip's room is promptly outfitted with blackout curtains for the windows, to protect you from the sunlight. A little cat bed and cat dish are set up for you... although the dish goes mostly unused, since Pip seems much more comfortable letting you lick blood from his arm than he does cutting himself to drain blood into the bowl and watching you drink it that way.

The kitty bed goes mostly unused as well, although you do lay on it sometimes in the early days of your recovery when Pip is out attending to his other duties and you still don't have the strength to jump all the way up onto _his_ bed. There is a tiny kitty coffin stashed under Pip's bed as well, but you almost never sleep in that, either. Both of you seem to prefer it that you sleep curled up on the pillow next to him.

As the weeks pass and turn into months, you begin to fear that he really does see you as nothing more than a pet. He often cuddles with you, strokes your fur, and talks to you without expecting a response - as one does with a pet. Even though he obviously knows you're a sentient being who can understand everything he says. And in his ramblings, he never brings up the fact that you haven't changed back to your human form yet, although you know from wandering the hallways and listening in on conversations you aren't supposed to overhear that Integra has expressed concern over your lack of transformation.

Nearly an entire year passes before you finally regain enough strength to take your human form again, and when it does happen, it takes you entirely by surprise. You've been a cat for so long now that you've almost forgotten what it was like being a human, or even a human-shaped vampire.

You wake up suddenly in the middle of the night. Your body feels itchy and strange. You try to stretch but your limbs don't move right. Your back foot hits the footboard. Your front foot hits the headboard. Your brain is screaming: _wrong, wrong, wrong_.

Hand. Your _hand_ hit the headboard.

Just as you're realizing this, Pip wakes up and reaches out to comfort you.

"Hey," he says softly. "Hey, Lucky, it's okay. It's alright. Shh."

You only notice the distressed sounds issuing from your throat when his attempts at comforting you bring them to your attention. You relax into his embrace, snuggling against him, and burying your face against his chest. Pip rubs your back soothingly.

"Hey, you changed back," he says softly. "That's good."

"It feels weird," you whine.

He laughs.

"Well, it's been a long time since you've been in that form. I imagine it would."

The two of you lay there together quietly in the dark for a small eternity, the only sound being the slight shift of fabric as he continues to softly stroke the spot between your shoulder blades. This moment feels like magic, but also fragile... transitory. Liminal.

You're just waiting for him to realize that person beside him is a woman, _a vampire_ , not his little pet kitty anymore.

Pip is the one who finally breaks the silence.

"Hey, now that you can tell me, what's your real name, anyway?"

The one you used as a human and the one your former master called you both refuse to pass your lips. Neither of those belong to you anymore. Or, more accurately, _you_ don't belong to _them_.

"Lucky sounds good to me," you whisper into the front of his nightshirt.

"Lucky it is, then," he says, and shifts to press a kiss to the top of your head. Then he asks, "You going back to sleep or do you need a drink first?"

And you realize that he's treating you the same now because he's thought of you as a person all this time.

~end~


End file.
